A very special this one, my 20th unique activation, all 20 references were 1st time activations. And ONFF-388 was the last one to activate in the province of Antwerp (list may 2015). So this province is now temporarly a blanc spot.ONFF-388 Zwart Water in Lichtaart is enclosed by
electric fence. And yes I tested it, it works … hi. The only way to get
in the boundaries is to enter the bird-watching hut at the west part of
the reserve. First passing a 2km long sandway before reaching this well
hidden place. No rain here for some time so except the dust it was not
that tough.
After setting up my station, with the most beuatiful /P shack I ever
had, I enjoyed some time the sunsrise over the small lake, with company
of a cup of coffee and dozens of birds. Life can be simple !
I started at 05:04 UTC, first QSO my buddy in Alberta Canada, VE6UX,
on 20m CW … think he might be the first Canadian to earn some ONFF
awards. Solid signals but no other North Americans worked. WWFF is still
not alive in that part of the world.
The electric fence was a great source of QRM … up to S9 from time to time. Don’t understand the sence of this …40m SSB and 20m SSB gave a great pile up with 2 VK’s in the log, one EA8
and several Asians (Asiatic Russia and 4Z4DX). At 8h UTC I had to close
down due to my never ending chronic pain problem. But had 207 QSO’s in
the log with 28 DXCC and 5 continents. Satisfied about this one !

We had to ask some locals how to find this one, we found a red marked
hiking trial that leads to the reserve. And there, on top of the hill we
set up for the second time. Started on 40m SSB with a nice pile up,
doing it over on 20m SSB. This time to tired for CW QSO’s, sorry ! ON3FY,
brandnew HAM David, took care again of the catering, thanks mate ! In
the meantime the sun appeared and we even got some sunburn from this
activation. 158 QSO’s with 28 DXCC in 2 continents, best DX : W1OW
This was tough, too tough for my aged bones. Two activations in one
day is too much for my suffering body. Think this will be a one time
try.
Wanna say many thanks to my buddy and lifetime friend ON7YZ, Mario, who drove his 4×4 to this remote places.Note : Got a bunch of paper QSL cards via the buro. I’m repeating : I prefer digital QSL (eQSL, Clublog, QRZ.com,
LoTW). Paper QSL cards cost me a lot of time and money. I prefer to put
my time in activating in the field, not by writing QSL cards. So PLEASE
only paper QSL cards if you really want one !

Leaving home sweet home at 6 in the morning … target is to activate ONFF-297 Hornebos and ONFF-194 De Knoppel in the south of the province of Limburg.Hornebos is on the border between Flanders and Wallonia, so also known as “Bois de Horne“.
Nothing special on this one, only woods, trees and forest. That’s it.
Setting up has become piece of cake : in about 10 minutes I’m able to
install the complete /P station so we started very fast on 14.044 CW
followed by 14.310 SSB and 7.097 SSB. Made 168 contacts in 32 DXCC and 4
continents. Best DX : VE6UX and VK1DI/P.Breaking down goes even faster than setting up, under a cloudy sky we headed to Mettekoven for the second activation : De Knoppel.

Another rather small but nice park in the Antwerp province : ONFF-384 Mosselgoren
in Geel. To get into the boundaries of the park I had to carry my /P
station for about 200 meters from the car, the place where also the
Mosselgoren sign is placed. Setting up the station at sunrise is always
great, everything is wakening up. So did a couple of pheasants that
proudly showed me their kids. Cute!
Started around 5UTC on 20m CW and the two first stations were from the US followed by my buddy from Alberta Canada : VE6UX. Coincidense, when he called me two Canadian gooses flew over making a hell lot of noise. Lovely start of the day!
Moving to 20m phone I worked a lot of EU station, this time not one
VK or any other overseas DX. Worked the pile-up to the bottom and gave a
call on 40m phone, great short skip conditons there, more than 100 EU
stations within an hour.
After a coffee-break (really missed the ON3FY-catering) and the visit
of ON4CEQ I started a run on 30m CW with about 30 stations in the log.
Ended with a last run on 20m phone with again only EU stations.
While breaking down and packing a lonely cuckoo was making a lot of noice in the Mosselgoren.
215 QSO’s with 30DXC
C in 3 continents. Nice ones : W, VE6, LX, GJ and GU … 48 CW QSO’s